|
The Nuts & Bolts of Senior Pets.
National Senior Pet Month
National
Senior Pet Month is when we get together and take a long, hard look at our
senior and geriatric pets. Sometimes things that might be perceived as normal
aging, and something that is not fixable, may indeed be treatable. The
advancements of veterinary medicine since your senior pets were born or hatched,
are significant and outstanding.
We can now
actually heal many Arthritis conditions with a series of injections.
It should not
be considered normal for your dog to stare at a wall like he forgot it was
there. There is a daily pill now for this disorder (Cognitive Dysfunction).
It should not
be considered normal for your dog or cat to urinate inappropriately just because
they are older. We need to find out why he or she is doing that (kidney,
bladder, diabetes, Addison’s disease, sphincter issues, behavior, Cushing's
Disease) and treat the underlying problem.
Our goal is to
keep your pet around with a great quality of life for the longest time
possible.
If you are
exhausted from cleaning up urine messes, or your pet is banished to the outside
most of the time because you are concerned about the potential urine messes,
then neither of you is getting the interaction level you used to have.
Sometimes owners are afraid to
bring their pet in because the problem might be bad and untreatable and they
would rather not know. However, we have had many cases of geriatric dogs and
cats where the primary reason for inappropriate urination was a simple urinary
tract infection which cleared up with antibiotics. So we never presume the
worst case. We may discuss it because we want you to be able to make informed
decisions, but we look at your pet and decides what it is that your pet needs
specifically.
Bring your pet in. Let’s see what
we can do.
What makes your pet senior or
geriatric?
A good rule of thumb is that pets
age 7 years for each of our human years. However, it is more complicated than
that. Smaller pets tend to live longer lifes and larger ones tend to live
shorter lives. So there is actually a sliding scale depending upon your pet’s
size to determine what your pet’s age is. You can look at our chart to find our
where your pet is on the scale.
As we age, people and dogs and cats
and birds, our body systems get worn out. Most older cats are likely to have
kidney disease. Most older dogs have arthritis. Do they tell us? No, of
course not. They just move slower or lose weight from eating less.
Fortunateley, if we catch certain
conditions early, we can really improve the quality of life for our pets, and in
many cases actually extend the anticipated lifespan for our pets. This is
especially true in the cases of kidney disease and obesity. Dietary control on
both of these conditions, if started soon enough, has been shown to extend
lifespan.
What should you do?
First, let’s get an examination on
your senior or geriatric pet. Younger animals should get an exam every 6
months, but on seniors, we should now see them every 4 months. We don’t need to
do everything on the first exam. We will prioritize. It will depend upon what
you are seeing at home, in conjunction with what Dr. Carpino finds on the
examination.
An easy thing to do first is to
look at our checklist
 and
determine what to watch for. Bring this with you to your pet’s exam. Monitor
food and water intake. Is your pet drinking more water than usual?
Then call for an appointment
899-8800. We now have Saturday and Sunday hours (3 days/month) for your
convenience.
| 
